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Kevin Youkilis is back in the lineup, batting fourth and playing first base. Youkilis talked frankly and defiantly this afternoon about charging the mound and the media's reaction to it.

"I don't care anymore," Youkilis said. "If you guys want to keep writing the crap you write, keep writing whatever you want. Sometimes you guys, I think, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. A lot of people are questioning what I did. I've heard a lot of things around Boston lately. I just think it is what it is.

"When you wake up in the morning, for instance, or you're playing in a game and you have shortness of breath after getting hit in the ribs and you still feel it to this day, I don't think you can put on paper what that feels like. Time and time again, when you keep getting hit in the ribs, it's your well-being in life. I have a family and this is my job. At some point, it's got to end. There's no other way, as hitters, we can't do anything about it. There's nothing, as a hitter, we can do. It's not like we can stand in the box and try to hit that slider or fastball right off the guy in the rib cage.

"The only thing I regret, I have a charity, I have a family. It's one of those things where you sit there and keep taking over and over and over. Until you know that feeling of getting at 96 miles per hour it the rib cage, over and over, it's not a good feeling. I think we're talking about this way too much."

Youkilis was asked if he figured he had sent a message by charging once, and if therefore his beanings will cease. Youkilis has been hit 10 times this season.

"If I get tonight, I'm probably going to go run around and try to fight everyone in the stands," Youkilis answered. "I mean, I don't know what you guys want me to do."

Now that his suspension is over, Youkilis still believes not appealing was the right decision.

"I did what was best for the team," Youkilis said. "There was no good time to take it. I mean, every game counts from here on out. If you have to take it, you have to take it. You can't worry about, 'Should I take it this series?' Losing to Texas two out of three in August 14th, 15th, and 16th is not that big of deal. We've got to win every game."